


Bleeding White

by brunchywrites



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fighting, Hurt/Comfort, Keith angst, M/M, Slow Burn, also Keith isn't okay but that's coming eerrr not today, and finally got down, fuck ya, i just love writing hunk okay, keith ain't fucking around boys, klance, klangst, neither is lance, or hunk, so this is essentially an idea ive had for like months, they catching on, tomorrow comes the sweet angst, white hair keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-01-10 01:57:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12288795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunchywrites/pseuds/brunchywrites
Summary: Even if it meant pain, he could handle it.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance had felt guilty ever since Keith got captured, there'd been nothing to do about it at the time because it was the plan that Keith himself proposed. To become a spy on the inside and relay signal messages from the hidden Blade of Mamora spies. Even if it meant pain, he could handle it. 

At the time Lance believed that he really did believe it because ever since Keith became the Black Paladin he made better decisions. He hated to think it, but a lot of Keith's plans ended up working better than Shiro's, especially his ability to change his mind on the fly if something didn't work instead of retreat and rethink. 

It was his quick thinking at wit that Lance struggled to understand, he couldn't make those good decisions on the fly like Keith could. What training did Keith have to do that? Maybe it was instinct.. 

But it had been over a month since they got a message relayed again from him, and the Blade was worried too, they somehow managed to lose him and voted to call off the mission. Having the discussion with the team was hard. They all sat at the table, one spot empty as it had been for what felt like ages. 

"What if he's dead?" Allura asked softly, fists clenched so hard her knuckles were going white, "I can't allow that to happen, we'll come up with a plan and get him after a night's sleep." 

Pidge looked down and adjusted their glasses before looking up, "I think they might've realized who he was, remember we.. used chemical combinations to make him look slightly more galra." 

"Yeah," Lance interrupted, "What if those wore off and they figured out who he was? He could be hurt, we need to go like- now!" 

Shiro clapped and broke the chatter, "Look, we can't just save him without a plan, if something goes wrong they could kill him. We can't have that." 

Lance stared quietly, and just as he was about to speak Hunk hit the table with his fist and spoke loudly. 

"We let him go through with his plan, Lance is right! He could be hurt and what if we missed a distress call? We need to act now because if they figured out who he is..." He trailed for a second and took a breath, "If he's hurt I don't.. I couldn't forgive myself.." 

Lance rubbed the yellow paladin's back quietly to comfort him, 

"Exactly, I think... we need to go now, its been a month with nothing." 

Shiro opened his mouth and Allura raised her hand and Coran looked at Shiro. 

"They're right, we need to go now I think, track the chip that we kept on him we could get to him shorter than a tic." She smiled, "Paladins, to your lions!" 

Lance got up without a second thought, everyone's chairs went back at the same time and they booked it to their hangers. 

Red's eyes lit up instantly and she purred then whined, worried. Lance felt the same and he smiled. 

"We're going to get Keith now, okay? Its important that we think clearly, one wrong move and.." 

The lion roared angrily and Lance put his hands up, "Okay, okay! I feel the same let's go!!!" Red opened her mouth so Lance could control her and he walked into the cockpit and sat down, strapping himself in and taking the controls. 

Once everyone came on the comms they soared into the sky in arrow formation, close to one another as possible without interfering at all. 

The only one was missing was Shiro, ever since he came back Black just rejected him entirely in favor of Keith. A phenomenon according to Coran, most lions wanted their previous pilot as much as possible (as seen with Zarkon). So for Black to actually prefer Keith was weird. 

But she was leading the way easily, searching for Keith. There'd been several days where Black went on auto-pilot and tried to fly off. Red always stopped her though, it made no sense. But when that happened Lance couldn't help but think of when Keith went through the trials of mamora and Red went off the deep end to get him safe. 

Seeing Keith after that was hard, Lance teased him for taking it that far. But it was terrifying to know that when Keith wanted. no needed something, he was willing to give up his own wellbeing to get to it. That was the determination that he envied personally. How could one person have so much dedication? 

They mostly flew in silence, which felt so odd. Everyone was tense though, the thought of losing Keith was close to too much to bear. Hunk nearly snapped at Shiro too. That meant it was serious. 

Lance sighed a little and something beeped and a picture appeared on his screen, the tracker they put in Keith's skin to track him while he was gone. A red dot was blinking on weird coordinates. 

"Do you guys see this?" He asked aloud, 

"Yeah," everyone answered in unison, Lance couldn't help but laugh a little. 

"Its close," Shiro's voice buzzed in on their comms, "Really close, maybe only five minutes away." 

"Whoa, he's so close!" Hunk sounded so excited, and Pidge whooped loudly before accelerating speed. 

"Okay!" Shiro interrupted their excitement, "You can't just bust in there, this needs to be as stealthy as clean as possible. Pidge, can you scan the ship once you see it and start hacking into their camera systems, try to find Keith through that first and try to get ahold of any bots. Hunk, I want you to stay on the outside and hit anything that tries to prevent the team from escaping. You're our big gun. Allura, I want you to be with hunk but on the opposite side of the ship, ready to attack when we call for you too. Be patient as well. Lance, I need you on the inside looking. Follow the tracker and I think you'll find him." 

Gee, of course, Lance would be sent on the inside. Whatever, he rolled his eyes, 

"Affirmative." The galra ship came into site and everyone took their positions, Lance got out of his lion and flew onto the ship, knocking out the guards with his bayard when Pidge shouted about the cameras were off and doors unlocked. 

He pressed a button on his armor and a hologram of the tracker came to view. He had to move quickly, the tracker was actually moving away. Was Keith.. running from something? He heard shouting and had to duck and hide. 

Galra soldiers ran by, shouting that someone 'got loose' he was guessing that someone was Keith. But they didn't say Red Paladin, just... legitimately someone. If his translation was right, he wasn't sure. 

Once they left he pursued again, the tracker had halted and he turned down a hallway, that was when he got a very loud shouting in his comm from Allura. 

"THE BLACK LION IS FLYING OFF THE HANDLE!" She yelled and he hissed back. 

"Got it, something's wrong I'm going quickly!" Lance started to run towards the aggressively blinking dot until it stopped. He was in front of what looked like an open area, like a meeting place of sorts. Except the windows were shattered as if something attacked right there. 

Lance peeked in further, pointing his gun around every time he turned. He was starting to get paranoid because he hadn't been able to find Keith yet. 

"Keith? Buddy, I'm here you don't have to run. We came to rescue you and-" Lance stopped talking immediately when he turned around a corner, eyes widening in absolute shock. 

The Black Lion had her face touching the palms of Keith's outstretched hands only he was looking straight forward. He knew it was Keith, he could feel it in his gut and without even thinking he started to run forward. 

"HOLY SHIT!!! You're alive, you're-... Keith..?" 

Keith turned slowly, Lance knew it was Keith because once his eyes focused on him they were that odd violet color. But his hair was this pure snow white color and he looked..almost ethereal in presence. It was a different feeling entirely. 

Lance stepped forward again, "Keith.. hey? Can you hear me? Are you hurt?" He got close enough and he put a hand on his teammate's shoulder quietly. Keith looked at his hand for a moment before looking up at Lance again. The eye contact was so intense and.. Lance could smell the heavy stench of blood being this close to him. 

"I think you're wounded, pal!" He laughed a little nervously, trying to keep his calm because holy shit Keith definitely was hurt and they nearly sat on that fact like sitting ducks. 

In one very sudden movement, Keith's left hand was on the left side of Lance's face, caressing his cheek. The tip of his thumb went over his cheekbone and Lance shivered at the feeling. Keith's hands were so cold... 

"You're.. you're real..?" Keith sounded close to surprised and Lance jumped when he spoke. He sounded really weak and tired, something happened. Lance laughed nervously. 

"Of course I'm real! Listen, we NEED to go now. Are you hurt? We need to make priority decisions here and-" Keith wasn't listening, his pupils dilated and he touched his left side. 

Black roared loudly and Keith turned to glare at her, then at the ground. He wasn't talking and that was a huge problem. 

"Keith, we need to go, okay? Black wants you to pilot her, can you do that? Answer me!" He was getting frustrated. Now Keith wasn't looking at him, this was a legitimate nightmare from hell. 

Something snapped and Keith nodded slowly, "Y. Yeah, I'm coming, alright? Needed a moment to process. Call for Red, we need to get out of here." 

Lance grinned at him, laughing a little. That was the Keith he knew, why did it take a second though? 

"Well yeah! Alright, awesome!" He sent out the call for Red and she came over so fast, he loved that about her. He turned to look at Keith again, the way that his hair framed his face. It was longer, and white.. it almost changed how he viewed his friend entirely. Why was it like that? 

He shook off his questions, he'd ask them later for sure. In the meantime, he got into his lion once he saw Keith do the same. Now the question was.. should he comm in? It was really weird that there wasn't much panic yet.. none at all. 

Looking out of the eyes of Red he saw Black backing up then taking off in the sky with newfound purpose, Red following close behind. This was joyous.. so Lance commed in loudly. 

"I got Keith, we need to zap back to the castle!" He chirped loudly, "I think he's alright but there's- well it can be explained. I think a healing pod needs to be the top priority. He smells like blood and isn't responding well, might be a concussion." 

There was a whoop from the other paladins at first until he got to the last part, then it became a serious get home fast mission. The worst part was that Keith couldn't hear them without his paladin armor, and that was still at the castle itself. It felt weird to not hear or see him. Wait.. could he establish a connection? Just one on one to make sure he was okay? Lance was his right-hand man after all. 

Lance pushed a few buttons, "Alright, Red. I wanna talk to Keith and just Keith. Is that video hologram thing only a suit thing or can I?" A message flashed across the screen. 

Black Lion voice call Initiated   
'Awesome', Lance thought quietly before speaking. 

"Hey, Keith are you doing okay? You didn't get talkative earlier. I'm worried, you've been gone for over a month." 

Keith responded pretty fast, laughing softly. It made Lance's heart jump into his throat suddenly. 

"I.. I feel like shit right now, to be honest, I was talking to Black when you found me. Sorry, she was worried." God, his voice was really raw and rocky. It sounded painful for him to speak. 

"Why do you feel like shit though?" Lance wanted to probe as many questions as possible before they put Keith in a healing pod to recover. The castle was coming into sight, thank whatever god was out there. 

Keith had paused for a moment or so before clearing his throat, 

"No clue, it feels like.. remember in the Garrison when they made us do that flight simulator where you're in a bowl spinning?" 

"You mean the pod, and yeah. Why?" 

"Because it feels like I'm in that pod again, everything is dizzy and it feels.. foreign. I can like.. hear things? I don't know, I'm just.." 

"Tired," they both said in unison and Lance laughed as he hung a left towards the hangers. 

Lance hummed a tune softly for a moment, "Everyone will be ready to talk to you. Do you want to talk to them?" 

Keith didn't speak for a moment as he landed his lion, Lance heard a cracking- knuckles hopefully. 

"I.. I think I'm bleeding-" 

Lance sighed softly, nodding as if Keith was there to see it. 

"Probably, you smelt like blood when I found you. I'll help you to the healing pods, I just need you to get out of Black. Okay?" 

"Yeah." The line went dead and Lance groaned as he exited Red. Keith was still somewhat stubborn and kind of.. odd honestly. Slow, slower than he was before. But that could've been because of this injury. 

He stood outside of the hangar and saw Keith step out of Black carefully, one arm wrapped carefully around his side. It was bleeding really badly, and Lance went to his side and held him close. 

"One arm around my shoulders," he spoke mechanically but Keith ended up listening to him anyways, "Do you know what happened?" 

Keith looked at him quietly, laughing weakly.. laughing, "Hell." It was so blunt but Lance took that answer and quietly led him to the healing pods. Thankful to have this moment alone with him again. He guessed his partners went up to them already. Probably had one prepared. 

He took the elevator up and once the doors shut Keith's head touched his shoulder. Lance looked straight ahead, he knew Keith went unconscious from the loss of blood. He could hear something dripping onto the floor now that they were still. 

Lance was right, there was a healing pod at the ready, everyone was completely shocked. That was all he could see, their wide-eyes and gaping mouths. Too afraid to say anything less it cost Keith more pain. 

Shiro helped Keith into the healing pod and shut it quietly, his metal hand actually shaking. Everyone was silent for a moment and Lance sunk to the floor, crossing his legs and taking off his helmet before clenching his fists. 

"He was hurt and we almost didn't come to get him.." He whispered quietly, his voice got caught in his throat and he swallowed quietly. 

Hunk sat next to him and pulled him in for a hug, it was tight, warm, and comforting. Something Lance melted into quietly. 

"But he's safe, Lance, he's safe now."


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Keith wakes up and everything is tense

It took nearly a week, Earth time for there to be any sign of Keith getting better. Lance had begun to spend a lot of his free time standing in front of his healing pod. 

Everything felt strange now that Keith was back, seeing him so vulnerable in the healing pod set him on edge. His hair was still that snow color of white, but all of the outside bruising was gone. Keith looked really weak, physically especially. Did the Galra just not care to give a prisoner food?

Wait, that was the point of having a prisoner. Making them suffer, and everything else. Hell, they made Shiro some sort of gladiator when he was captured. Only Keith knew what happened to him. It was a mystery so unreadily solvable. 

The pod lit up blue and Lance jumped up and caught Keith just as he fell out of it. 

"I know that feeling," Lance laughed at the memory of when he himself was in the pod. Good times- he woke up starving and he wondered if Keith was feeling the same way. God knows when he last ate because it looked like a while, to be frank, and that was something he couldn't handle very well. 

Keith grunted a little and tried to stand on his own, rubbing his head before speaking. Actually speaking, not that weird rasp like how it was a week ago. 

"They call it a healing pod yet it feels like I got hit across the head with a practice bot. Fuck's sake.." 

And there was the bluntness. Keith was okay! Lance could cry, but he didn't and instead he just held his teammate up. 

"I know, right?" Lance chuckled, "Hey, how about we get you a change of clothes and some food goo and we can talk about things? Sound good?" 

Keith looked startled at Lance's random kindness, brows quirked and lip slightly pursed in the way it always did when he was confused. 

"I.. guess? Yeah, I'll meet you in the kitchen." He shrugged Lance off of him and started walking, only the slightest hint of hesitance in his steps. Then his shoulders squared and he marched. 

"That doesn't mean you need to garrison march everywhere, now that you're back you can walk like normal!" Lance yelled after him. Keith waved his hand dismissively. Old habits died hard after all. 

Lance went into the kitchen with the brightest grin on his face, he couldn't hold it back. He was just glad Keith was officially physically alright despite looking thinner than a rail. That was a good thing in itself, and he was also glad that Hunk was experimenting with food goo. 

"Hunk, Keith woke up and we need to like- seriously get something with nutrition into him! Can you do that? Remember that time you made goo that tasted like-" 

"Tomato soup! Yeah, I'll make that for him, it'll be easy on his stomach. Why don't we get the others and tell them that he's back??" Hunk asked as he moved quickly to get all of the ingredients together for the soup goo. 

Lance paused at his question then tilted his head, "Because he just woke up and you know how he gets when people bombard him. I mean I missed the guy but didn't miss his attitude." 

"He just gets overwhelmed, I get it." Hunk nodded to himself, "Besides, Shiro and Pidge are looking at camera footage from the ship he was on. Half of it was corrupted they said." 

"Good luck to Pidge decrypting it. Maybe it has what happened to Keith on it so its worth it." 

"What about me is on what?" Keith's harsh voice felt like a whip going down in the room. Lance jumped but Hunk didn't. Instead, he was grinning happily. How Hunk was like this, Lance would NEVER know. 

Keith's shirt was hanging off of his shoulder as he sat down at the table, propping his chin on his hand as he looked between them too.  
"Are you gonna answer me or just keep staring?" He tucked some of his white hair behind his ear and stared straight ahead, not at anyone. 

It was just distracting and Lance was worried, even more, his clothes didn't even fit right anymore. He chewed on his lip before laughing nervously, 

"We were talking about how you need to eat something," Lance spoke quietly and as if on cue Keith's stomach growled. 

Keith wrapped his arms around himself, flushing slightly. Was he.. embarrassed for being hungry? That was normal, it didn't make sense. Something really did happen, Lance thought. His mind was going five hundred miles a second before Hunk set down a bowl of orange goop in front of the black paladin. 

Lance started jiggling his leg slightly, Hunk filled in the silence so easily though. 

"So this goo is a brand new development, I got it to taste like tomato soup using some cool spices we found at the space mall! Give it a try?" He patted Keith's shoulder and the white-haired man looked at it nervously before trying it. 

His face lit up entirely, "Oh, wow. Yeah, that tastes.. really close to it actually," Keith sounded pleased as he put another spoonful into his mouth, slowly starting to eat. 

"I'm glad! It took so much tweaking but its better than the goo by itself." Hunk said proudly and Keith nodded in approval and kept eating. 

Lance felt like he could breathe out relief entirely. They took a step forward, that was good. He leaned forward, 

"It was great when Hunk got the recipe down. Everyone was so happy and-" 

"Keith's awake?" Shiro's voice broke into the conversation and Lance whipped around quickly, grinning and nodding. But Shiro looked.. solemn, the worry was written on his face entirely. Normally Shiro was good at hiding those feelings. Lance frowned. 

"Yeah, he's like right her eating, dude. Come sit and talk." He gestured to the seat next to him. Keith was looking at Shiro with that blank look he had on just a few minutes ago. 

Except his eyes followed every single one of Shiro's movements and his hand was clutched tightly around his spoon. He cleared his throat a little when Shiro sat down. They were just staring at each other, really. 

"Your hair its.." Shiro's words trailed into nothing very quietly and Keith touched his hair self consciously, looking down and away. 

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife it was so prominent. But the conversation kept going. 

"I know." Was all Keith said before taking another bite of soup with a shrug, "Unless we find a space mall that has hair dye I don't know how to fix it." 

"How did that happen to you!?" Shiro's voice elevated and god... was he shaking? Lance looked at Hunk and they exchanged an anxious look. 

Keith put the spoon on the table and turned in the chair, lifting his knee up to his chest and resting his chin on it as he peered at Shiro. Like a predator, everything about his face and demeanor screamed that maybe Keith was about to lunge or something. Like a cat. 

"L-Let's not been rash here guys! I'm sure we can all talk about this together and work it out!" Lance's voice cracked and he waved his hands. This didn't need to happen, they just got Keith back and he didn't want to put Keith in a mood so soon. He looked over at Keith and realized he had his teammate's full attention on him. His violet eyes were peering at him and he just tilted his head. 

"I'm just answering Shiro's question," he looked back at Shiro and very bluntly stated, "I don't recall." 

He didn't.. recall? He just didn't remember what happened? 

"Then what was the point of the mission?" Shiro sounded so serious and cold but apparently, Keith was taking this as calmly as ever because he had no general reaction to the change in tone. 

"To get information, and I did. The Galra plan on going to a galaxy called Xaxis and taking it over. Not only that, but they're enslaving any living being in that galaxy and if they're useless.. killing them off." Keith spoke very quickly as if to fit in what he was trying to say or collect his thoughts enough to even get it out. "So that being said, the mission is done and we need to go to that galaxy and prevent it from being taken over!" 

Lance looked at the white-haired man quietly, eyes wide, "Whoa, that's... crazy. We do need to go if that's their next spot we could-" 

"Corner them and destroy Zarkon in that galaxy, it's a weak point for galra entirely due to the atmosphere. Everyone will be in helmets for protection-" Keith interrupted him and kept talking even when Lance shot him a sour look, "Listen, I'm the leader now and I feel like we really need to do this." 

"Keith, Voltron isn't ready for a battle like that- you're not ready. Look, you're weak. You were in captivity for over a month. You need to take a short break. We can build up defenses and start establishing contacts and-" 

Keith stood up from his chair and suddenly Hunk was behind him, hands on his shoulders. He was breathing raggedly and his fists were clenched so tightly. His eyes were blown out again, except it was a different reaction entirely. Shiro took a few steps back. 

"I'm- I'm not weak," Keith tried to keep his voice level, Lance looked between two of them. Normally Keith would listen to Shiro- god damn this was so different. He couldn't wrap his head around it at all. "I got the information we needed, I'm not letting what I did become nothing!" He shrugged away from Hunk and stormed out of the kitchen. Pissed of and seething. 

Lance got up and followed him, his jog turning into a sprint, "KEITH WAIT!!!!" He yelled after him, "Come back! Okay, lets talk about this more civility it wasn't supposed to go that way. Keith, stop!" 

Keith stopped and turned around, "I'm going to shower, can you just leave me alone for five minutes!?" He was screaming basically and Lance stopped too. He breathed a sigh. 

"Yes, I can. Do your thing but I still want to talk to you.. in private, okay? Can you do that for me, buddy?" 

The Black Paladin's eyes widened when he was called buddy and he nodded at him. "Yeah, I can do that," He turned to walk away but Lance smiled and walked over to him, slinging an arm around his shoulders. 

"And Keith?" 

"Yeah, Lance?" Keith rolled his eyes and stared at Lance's arm until he let go of him. 

"In the farthest shower stall on the left, there's nice soap that kind of smells like soap from Earth. If you want to use it for a little taste of home. Feel free to use that today, okay?" 

Keith stared at him for a moment as if he was growing four heads, but he actually seemed interested in the idea of using something that was close to home-ish. Lance could tell that whenever Keith was interested he'd lean forward on his toes just slightly. He was easy to read once you were stuck with him for a few months. 

Lance really missed him, but he could tell him all about that when they were alone. 

"Thanks." And Keith was walking back to the showers, leaving Lance alone to dwell on his feelings and have words with Shiro. 

Maybe they could deduct probabilities of what happened to Keith, something still felt so foreign about him. As if he was hiding something.. what could he be hiding? 

Or maybe Keith really couldn't recall what happened to himself because he was so focused on the mission, if they tortured him Lance swore he'd be the one to round house Zarkon across his stupid turtle head. 

He sighed softly to himself before humming and walking back to the kitchens to maybe discuss this with Shiro and Hunk. Hopefully Pidge would be there soon too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted some domestic stuff but also plot thickener so here it be.  
> also idk how long this'll be yet because this is my 'for fun' fic and i'm not taking it seriously at all just saying
> 
> so if you have ideas hit up the comment section and ill try to incorporate it in 
> 
> thanksssss for reading


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've made the DUMB goal set in mind to just go all out on this thing and try and write one chapter per day. This is also the last chapter in Lance's point of view before I switch to Keith's for maybe a chapter or two. if you don't like that choice please let me know in the comments.

When Lance got back to the kitchens everyone was there including Pidge this time, he smiled nervously and looked at Shiro quietly. 

"He just woke up from healing sleep and you-" 

"I'm sorry, Lance I just.. I worry about him. He was gone for over a month and something just.. isn't right. I can feel it in my bones." 

Pidge looked up from what they were reading quietly, first at Shiro then at Lance entirely, "I mean I get that but.. he did just wake up Shiro. We can't just shove questions on him. He said he couldn't remember what happened to him but.. It obviously couldn't have been good." 

"You know how Keith gets when he's determined, he won't focus on his own wellbeing until what he wants gets done," Shiro's voice was soft and he ran his hand through his hair carefully, sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, "With that in mind, I don't know if he's repressed those memories for his own task at hand. When I got back from being captured I didn't remember much until later.. I don't want him to go through that." 

Everyone got really quiet at that and Lance cleared his throat a few times, rocking back on his heels. 

"Yeah, he does get like that. When you were gone he collapsed while training because he forgot to eat for three days. It was kind of scary but when we mentioned that he needed to care for himself better.." He trailed off and Pidge luckily picked up the sentence for him, he loved that about his friend. 

"Mhm, he started to get slightly better with eating regularly. But we could never get him to sleep longer than three hours." Pidge pushed up their glasses and looked at Hunk, "We thought about knocking him out to get him to sleep." 

Hunk laughed a little as he cleaned up the kitchen, the memory was truly nice. Even Lance could agree about that. It was funny to see Keith nodding off at breakfast and dinner. 

"Those things aside, I think we need to come up with a plan to.. help him get better. He looks really. weak." Lance folded his arms behind his back before he kept talking, "Do you guys notice the pupil thing too?" 

"Mhm! Yeah, definitely noticing the pupil thing. They keep dialating and he looks out of touch with everything. I dunno if its a side affect of the healing pod or.. maybe the galra messed with his head before we got to him." Hunk pondered for a minute and Lance felt himself getting anxious with that suggestion. After all, this was the galra. 

"Keith's half galra though!" Lance found his voice breaking slightly, "Why would they want to do that?" 

"Why wouldn't they want to do that?" Shiro asked, "Maybe that was higher incentive once they figured out he wasn't fully galra." 

Shiro was right and Lance hated that Shiro was right, it was so hard to think about. Especially with Keith. Keith fighting back and sweep-kicking some galra goons away was so much better to think about then Keith being experimented on, wondering if anyone would actually come for him while carrying out his spying mission. 

"ANYWAYS!" Pidge yelled and broke their awkward silence, "We do need to come up with a plan to get him back to.. as normal and Keithy as possible. Sorry, but he's scary thin and looks like he'll pass out at any second. I think we should start training and getting him to eat more. Maybe there's medicine in the castle that can help him relax and just.. maybe get him to talk." 

"Or we can wait for him to decide it on his own and prompt him in the mean time. I don't know how open he'll be to us just.. shoving help onto him." Shiro crossed his arms over his chest and Lance gawked. Of all people, he thought Shiro would be the one to want to help Keith the most. 

He frowned a little, looking at both Pidge and Hunk but they were silent, in a quiet agreement with Shiro. It was three against one, he realized. 

With a sigh Lance rubbed the space between his eyes, "Got it, we'll just.. do that. I'm gonna go see if he's out of the showers so that I can talk to him some more about what he wants to do. 

He left the kitchens on his own and heard Pidge laugh nervously about something, he rolled his eyes slightly and kept walking towards the common area and was actually shocked to find Keith just.. sitting on one of the couches, combing his wet hair with his fingers and sitting in red pajamas. 

Wait, Lance had the same pajamas in blue... everyone had those pajamas? No one ever told him that! Were they embarrassed or something??? He didn't know but he grinned and walked over, gliding over to stand in front of Keith, who was staring into space again with that weird blown outlook. 

It was kind of cute to see him curled up, knees tight to his chest while he dazedly got through his hair. And Lance hated to admit it but he was glad the mullet was gone. (It was so ugly). White didn't look so bad on Keith at all. 

Lance leaned forward and waved his hand in front of his face, "Earth to Keith, do you register, pal?" 

Keith froze, then blinked a few times, "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I was thinking about something for a minute." He looked.. tired again, Lance couldn't blame him. When he got out of the healing pod he slept for 14 hours which was ironic considering how long he was in the pod for. 

"Well you look tired and I thought something was smoking. Here, let me take you to your room so you can get some rest. You need it." 

"No." Keith frowned a little, brows knitting together as he shook his head. "Fuck that, I'm not.. no. Just, no." His voice hit defensive levels and he was glaring at Lance. 

Lance narrowed his eyes, then laughed a little. 

"Dude, you need to sleep though." 

"But I can't, not in there." Keith admitted quietly, "I don't think I could sleep anyways everything is so.." He rubbed his temples and put his face in his hand slowly. "Its just jumbled and I can't even stop thinking to shower and.." 

That was why, right. Lance took a seat one cushion over from him and fiddled with his thumbs nervously. 

"Well, what are you thinking about Keith?" He was hoping maybe he remembered what the galra did to him during his capture. But he wouldn't be mad if that wasn't the case.. or if Keith couldn't talk about it. Shiro still couldn't really remember much due to the trauma of it all. 

Keith shifted a little and put one of his legs down before speaking, "I can't stop thinking about how when I was on the galra ship, whenever I slept I had these weird.. weird dreams from when I was a kid y'know? And.. just I.. I miss Earth. I miss being able to walk outside and feel the sun on my face, then later being out so long that it burned to be back inside with air conditioning. O-Or when it rained and it rains so hard that you can literally hear it," he was starting to tremble slightly as he talked, Lance wanted to say something but Keith was on an odd talking roll. 

"And just.. it was weird to actually see my dad again because it's been so long since I thought of him. But when I was there he was just in my dreams, like memories replaying on a tape. It makes no sense, why couldn't I dream about that when I needed it?" He curled up on himself again, closing his eyes and burying his face in his knees. 

Lance licked his lips for a moment, he felt his heart grow a few sizes. Keith missed Earth, Lance missed Earth too. But the part about his father? He made a mental note of that as he reached for his shoulder. 

Keith leaned into Lance's touch slightly and Lance tried not to flinch at the odd reaction. It was fine, he told himself. This was just an after-effect of Keith being gone so long. Nothing bad would come and.. Keith actually moved a little closer on his own. 

"I-I miss Earth too. Especially my family, maybe being captured made you stressed and homesick.. did.. anything else come to mind when you were in the shower?" God Keith looked so tired but there was no way he was going to convince him to sleep in his room. Keith was probably in a cell for over a month. Lance felt so guilty for letting him go through that. 

"Just.. numbers.. 10987...10987...10987-10987..." Keith was tapping his finger on the cushion to a pattern with the numbers and Lance touched his hand a little, running his thumb over Keith's knuckles when the white-haired paladin's eyes glassed over and he kept repeating the number. 

It was like when Shiro came back and a week later he started repeating a formula, pacing back and forth during training and it took Keith legitimately holding him for an hour to get him back to how he normally was. 

Lance quietly pulled Keith into his arms, then his lap, laying Keith down. He could handle this, he could be a good friend. 

"Shh. Keith its okay, breathe for me alright, we're in the castle right now. You're not on the galra ship. That'll never happen again." Lance ran his fingers through Keith's damp hair quietly as he trembled in his lap. 

"10987, what does it mean? It can't mean nothing.. right?" 

"Definitely not- its okay, we'll figure it out. But Keith- Keith...hey." It was hard to listen to and to watch. Keith was always so sure of himself and just blunt and to the point with everything. Hearing him question his own thoughts and memories felt like a stab in the chest. What could make someone so sure of himself think this way? 

What broke him? What broke Keith? 

"10987.. 10987... ten.. nine..eight...seven, backward from ten," Keith's breathing was starting to even out as Lance continued to comb out his hair with his fingers. 

"Hey, it is. Maybe it was a countdown." 

"Countdown." Keith echoed, closing his eyes and pressing his face into Lance's lap slightly. 

"I wonder if it was for a game when I was little my siblings used to play hide and seek and would count down from ten until the 'it' was ready to find them." 

"Mmm?" Good, Lance distracted Keith from whatever had plagued his mind like that. Quickly too, or maybe Keith was too tired to focus on it. 

Or it left his mind as soon as it entered, he wasn't sure. 

Lance smiled softly down at him, Keith was looking up at him from his spot, comfortable as ever it seemed. "You know I did come down here to actually ask you something. Are you too tired right now or..?" 

"Go ahead," damn, Keith's emotions just did a full 180 on him. Weird. 

"I wanted to ask how we should get you back into normal Keith mode. My first suggestion was to get you to put some weight on because dude. You're thinner than a beanpole over here and it doesn't suit at all. The second suggestion was maybe getting in some training when you're up for it." 

Keith nodded a little, still gazing up at him. 

"I think that'll work, I.. don't want to be out of commission for longer than I have to be. I can start writing down all the information I spied on so we can keep a record of it. But that galaxy IS in danger and I'm pretty sure even if I look thin the Black Lion will let me pilot her and form Voltron. I'm still me." 

Lance snorted and started to laugh at Keith's remark, nodding a few times. 

"Yeah! That sounds great, I'll let everyone go. How about I get up and get you a blanket and pillow so you can rest and we'll figure the rest out when you're up? I think everyone else is going to bed soon too. You came out of the pod at SUCH an awkward time. 

Keith laughed a little and sat up so Lance could get up too, and once he was up Keith immediately was back down on the sofa. 

"Okay, have fun with that, Lance. Don't screw my words around though, I'll kick your ass in training tomorrow." 

"Oh suuuuuuuuree you will Keith.. sure." Keith flipped him off and Lance stuck his tongue out at him and marched away, grinning to himself as he went down to the rooms to get a blanket and pillow. 

Lance didn't want him to be uncomfortable after all, plus Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge could wait another five minutes since he was right and they didn't want to listen to him.


	4. Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shit hits one of the four fans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its LIT i love this chapter but its short as hell bc -shrug- keith isn't the main pov in this fic this is just a snipppeettt

Hands were all over him touching him, moving him because he couldn't move his body at all. He was trapped, hands grabbed his temples and held his head down. He wanted so badly to scream, to fight whatever was touching him, 

"Begining the treatment in.. 10..9..8.." No, no the countdown couldn't start. He couldn't do this again. He didn't think he could handle it all over again, he just couldn't. It'd been so long since he started the mission, he was outted. Who outted him? Why was this happening? 

Two needles stabbed into both of his arms and he felt his breath catch in his throat. Everything came racing back to him all of the sudden. He wanted to scream, reach out. The Black Lion was here, he was safe. 

Then three more stabbed into him and he felt himself scream.

__________________________________________________________________________

Keith's eyes shot open and he sucked in a breath, the scream never coming out of him as he sat up. Putting his hands on his chest he started breathing heavily, looking at his arms. Red.. wait he was in.. pajamas? Where was he? 

His head hurt and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands and adjusted to the light, right.. he was back at the Lion Castle. He rubbed his face again and got off of the couch quietly, walking back to his room to change clothes and start training. 

He couldn't fall back on not being ready for a fight, he couldn't have his teammates worried about him either, so he was quick to change into his normal clothes. The navy t-shirt hung off of his shoulder slightly and he had to tighten his belt a lot. He hated this, hated the way he looked. All of the memories of what happened to him only came to him in his sleep and it made things worse. 

Keith grabbed his bayard and quietly walked out to the training arena, rolling his shoulder and looking at the resting bots. 

"Start: Level 1, Ascend Mode." He spoke clearly and loudly and watched the bot come to life. He took a low stance to the ground as his bayard formed into a sword and he charged. Getting involved in the familiar training sequence he was deprived of for so long. He got lost in the movements as the levels were announced one by one. He got all the way to eight when suddenly it was called off. How much time had passed?

He was breathing hard, muscles trembling from the strain he put on his body. Deep down he knew he should've taken it slowly but he needed the distraction so badly, to feel his bayard in his fingertips again. When he held it everything felt so much better. Like he was supposed to be there. 

After taking a few breathes he growled out, "Why the hell did you shut it off!?" 

Lance was staring down at him, blue eyes wide with what looked like fear. Maybe it was worry, Keith was never sure. He sucked at reading other people's emotions. 

"I dunno, because you're pretty pale and look like you're about to fall out? Seriously, you can't push yourself so hard!" Great, Lance was running to him. He didn't need that, he wanted to be alone. To train and figure out how to think like normal. 

"I'm FINE!" Keith hissed, backing up when Lance got closer. But he just kept walking, what couldn't he understand about being fine. "Can you just stop!?" 

"No! I can't! Not at all because you're not okay to be training like this, ever! Not until you're back to how you used to be!" Lance's voice sounded so raw, and when he yelled Keith saw something flash beyond his eyes. Something menacing caught his vision and he felt himself back up while the other man got closer to him. 

'He's nearly ready to begin operation, look at his eyes, he can read movements faster.'

His breath caught the back of his throat once he hit the wall, hair falling over his eyes. Impossibly white, stupidly white. Keith hated it so much, and there was no way he could get it back to its original color now. 

Lance's hands clamped down on his shoulders and Keith fought back a gag at the sensation of hands on his body. Touching him all over, relentlessly. He could practically hear the countdown in his head. It was revolting and he couldn't focus that well until Lance started yelling at him. 

"You're not listening! We're all worried about you, dude!! And you're trying to train yourself away, you can't-" 

"Get off.." 

"Just do that to yourself!! It can kill you, you're still weak from your mission!!!-" 

"..Get off.." 

"No! Not until you pinky promise to take care of yourself and come and-" 

"I SAID GET OFF!" Keith put his hands up to shove Lance back but without warning, the current red paladin just slid a few feet. He didn't even touch him but red sprouted at the edges of his vision and he felt like he couldn't breathe. What did he do? He was shaking again, he looked at his hands quietly and choked back a breath. What had he done? 

He put a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, coming back with red stains, "Wh-what is this..?" His vision was starting to feather but he was panicking so badly. His heart was beating so hard it actually hurt and he looked up at Lance. 

Horrified, that face he was was that of pure horror and Keith knew it even when velvet black took over his vision and he felt the pain of his head crashing against the floor and a warm hand suddenly on the small of his back. 

He finally let out the scream he couldn't get out when he woke up.


	5. Back to Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> drama drops, what happened to Keith?

Keith had put his hands up like he was ready to shove Lance off of him and Lance knew then that he shouldn't have pushed so hard. But without anything touching him he was shoved back a good five feet and a blinding red light flashed around him. 

It was terrifying because he moved without being pushed, and he just slid- as if he was wearing socks running around a tile floor. He looked down then back up at Keith, trying to form a sentence but he couldn't because there was blood dripping out of his friend's eyes and he was shaking so hard. 

Even when he tried he couldn't hide the fact that he was horrified, terrified that this was happening. He didn't know what to do, and Keith was starting to freak out. 

"Wh-What is this..?" Keith sounded so weak when he talked, so tired. This was why Lance didn't want him training so soon or pushing himself that hard. 

"Keith- breathe for a second, calm down and-" Lance's words weren't enough, Keith went nearly gray and fell onto the ground roughly. Instantly Lance was on his side, touching the small of his back to get him onto his back. 

The other's body suddenly went completely rigid and unmoving except for a slight spasm and immediately Lance just knew what was going on. His older brother used to have seizures a lot due to epilepsy. He could handle this. 

What he couldn't handle was that blood-curdling scream that came out of Keith when he became fully susceptible to the seizure. Lance bit his lip to keep himself from crying. 

Keith's body spasmed again before Shiro just ran into the training arena. He could hear the panic in his voice but Lance couldn't bring himself to look up at his ex-leader in the eye. 

"What happened? Why did he scream!?" Shiro knelt down next to Keith and placed his robotic hand against the smaller's forehead. 

Lance stared at them for a moment, narrowing his eyes at Shiro. He knew that Shiro knew that Keith couldn't stand the feeling of metal on his face. When Shiro did it by accident the first time Keith had flipped out on him big time. Apparently, Keith flipping out like that was something Shiro was used to. Because Shiro never did it again. 

Until that moment. 

"He.. doesn't like that, remember?" 

"Maybe it'll shock him out of the seizure..??" 

"You can't shock someone out of- just stop touching his face with your metal hand, he really doesn't like it and I don't want him to deal with all of that first thing." 

Shiro shot him a look and Lance threw it back at him until Shiro put his hands in his lap. 

Keith's body suddenly relaxed again and he sighed through his nose softly. Lance quietly started running his finger's through his white hair, separating a lock and starting to braid it. 

"Is he.. alright?" Shiro's voice got quiet and he stood up awkwardly, Lance looked up at him and tilted his head. 

"I mean, it didn't last longer than a minute or so? He'll be fine. Might need a few minutes to collect himself and calm down though. It takes longer for the brain to kind of.. y'know, reregister. That was the case with my brother," Lance tried to smile a little but Shiro nodded, worry blanking his features before he spoke, voice soft. 

"When you think he's ready.. can you tell him to come talk to me?" 

Lance nodded a little, "Of course, I'll send him to you when he's doing better." 

Shiro nodded and left the room, and Lance sighed in relief before going back to playing with Keith's hair. When it hit the light it was almost iridescent looking. It was nice to see him relaxed for once, but it sucked that it was because of what happened.

He could think of hundreds of questions to ask but he didn't until Keith's eyes opened again and he looked up at Lance. 

"Its okay that I'm touching your hair, right?" Lance grinned and the corner of Keith's lips twitched into a sideways smile. He nodded quietly and Lance took that as yes he did. So he kept playing with it, pulling some from around his forehead and beginning to put it into french twists. 

"Mmm.. how.. what happened?" Keith's voice was rough again from the tension he held in it. Lance smiled though, trying to offer the best. 

"You had a seizure, you kind of like.. telekinetically.. shoved me and.. Do you know what happened, Keith? I feel like you'd know better than I do. It looked like what you did really hurt you."

Keith looked up again and Lance swore his heart swelled into his chest. He bit his lip a little and laughed, "Keith- i-its' fine if you can't I just.. don't like seeing you hurt.. its kind of weird because in the Garrison you were just so.. aloof and badass, like untouchable and even when we became paladins it was like you of all people could never be hurt. If anyone thought about it you'd like to stab their thought of that away." Lance laughed sheepishly. 

"In the Garrison I ran on nothing but coffee and spite," Keith murmured quietly, sighing again as he continued talking on. "I don't really know, its.. related to something from the mission. I keep- I had a dream that I was there again. I was strapped to a table, something was injected into me. I don't know what but.. maybe that's what the link is. Memories are coming back in weird waves." 

"That's okay, I just.. it freaked me out when you dropped. I think you knocked your head on the floor. How do you feel?" 

"Tired, but that's mostly it. My head doesn't even hurt that badly, to be honest, is there a bruise?" Keith closed his eyes again and Lance tilted his head to the side, scoping out the side he fell on. 

With a whistle, he added, "One's definitely going to form, its just red right now," out of pure instinct he pressed a soft kiss to Keith's temple and he felt the other man jolt a little. Then he realized what he did and he jerked up slightly. 

"Sorry- shit- its a habit from back on Earth y'know- lots of siblings and my older brother had seizures a lot so I just- Its-" Fuck, he was stuttering way too much! 

Keith laughed a little and sat up a little, looking dazed before gently tilting Lance's chin down with his fingertips and pressing the softest kiss to his lips before laying back down. 

In his own shock, Lance just sat there, touching his mouth slightly. Keith just.. kissed him- okay he knew Keith didn't get social cues. So how would he know that was kind of what Lance.. wanted. 

"I have a feeling that wasn't what I was supposed to do?" Keith asked aloud and Lance jumped, then laughed. 

"No! Not at all, I just didn't think you got the hint that I liked you!!!" 

"Well it was kind of easy, you smell like.. love, I dunno." He shrugged and quietly rolled over and Lance decided to sit normally on the ground, quietly pulling Keith towards his lap. 

Keith rested his head against Lance's thigh and hummed a little before closing his eyes again and relaxing. Lance started to play with his hair, finishing the french twists off into a gorgeous braid (if he did say so himself) 

"How do I smell like love?" 

"Dunno... you just do.." Keith murmured sleepily, smiling slightly and turning his face to rub up against Lance's jeans. 

Lance.. had no idea Keith could smell emotions like that- was that a weird galra thing? He reminded himself to ask Coran about it later. 

Something had changed about him. 

But Lance couldn't tell if it was for better or for worse really, all of this was so.. scary. 

And he never did send Keith off to Shiro, even when he was fine. He spent the rest of that day holding him in his lap because Keith just fell asleep and he couldn't bring himself to wake him up.


	6. Fluff Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its time for that fluff ya'll

After that Keith recovered very quickly, getting back into the swing of things with a shocking amount of ease. Lance couldn't even describe what had flipped it really. But after a few Earth weeks Keith was basically back to being the same way. Especially with the attitude and his mannerisms of training. 

One thing did change, and it was how they treated each other. They spent a lot of quiet moments together, holding hands under the table at meals and spending more time together in general. It was oddly relaxing and felt oddly right, sometimes Keith would start talking about what happened on the mission but it normally was oddly vague because he couldn't recall it very well. 

Other times Keith was moody and like normal Keith, huffing slightly when he didn't get his way and getting worried whenever an issue came out. So far there wasn't a need to really leave the Castle of Lions. 

Which Lance liked a lot because it gave him an excuse to be where he was at that moment, laying across Keith's lap in the lounge while they all discussed more recent plans to assemble a coalition to gain allies across the many galaxies so they could face the Galra head on and take them out. 

Keith was running his fingers through Lance's hair and he couldn't help but sigh at the sensation of Keith's nimble fingertips against his scalp. What was better was listening to him talk. 

"I think we should go to certain star systems first and do what we can, actually aid them first before asking them to team up with us." Lance nodded in quiet agreement, because that wasn't a bad idea, 

"Then we can show off what our lions can do and- what if we got a light show!? That would be SO cool-" Lance pumped his fists into the air and Keith leaned back to avoid the possibility of getting hit.   
Pidge laughed, "Yeah! Then more people would get interested, its great and fun!" They opened up a menu on their holographic laptop and started typing furiously. 

"Yeah but.. we should focus more on finding out what the galra are doing. Have we all just forgotten that they could have information on Keith? That's dangerous, we need to discover that first-" Shiro looked annoyed and everyone just..stared. That was another thing as of late. Shiro was really tense, and Lance guessed it was because they hadn't had any reason to go and defend the universe lately. Antsy, but it was different. Even around Keith, Shiro just looked stressed. Occasionally more-so than normal. 

And Keith equally looked as uncomfortable, occasionally staring at him for too long at dinner or frowning in his general direction. Keith didn't look people in the eye directly EVER unless he was actually mad or it was an accident. So everything was.. generalized, if he was glaring nine times out of ten it was his resting face. Lance had realized that recently. 

"Shiro do you remember the lake?" Keith suddenly interuppted everything and everyone was looking at him. Now, a few random moments of memory occasionally jumped at him recently since he was actually recovering and getting back to normal. But the lake seemed weird. Even Lance was intrigued and when he looked around so was Allura, Pidge, and Hunk. Everyone was focused on their conversation now. 

Lance looked at Shiro and saw the man blink a few times and tilt his head, "Of course I remember the lake. Why are you bringing this.. up? Everything okay?" Damn, Shiro's mood did a 180 and Lance sighed as he looked up at his boyfriend. (If they were that, Keith was still vague about his feelings when it came to communicating verbally) 

Keith was tense and his eyes looked slightly bloodshot, then he started to glare, making no mistake in directing it exactly at Shiro and not in a general direction. 

"Why are you glaring? Is everything alright Keith?" Allura's calm voice broke the tension and Lance slowly slid off of Keith's lap and sat next to him calmly. Keith's hands were clenching the fabric of his jeans tightly, so hard his knuckles were turning white. Something was wrong and Lance laughed nervously. 

"Keith, dude you're glaring really hard.. calm down? Tell us what's on your mind?" He didn't want something to happen again, the last time Keith's eyes were this bloodshot they started bleeding and he had a seizure. Could it be linked to an elevated heart rate due to emotions?? He had to remind himself to ask Pidge to do that analysis, he forgot in the midst of Keith's recovery. 

Lance looked back at Shiro, who was glaring equally as hard at his teammate. 

"Okay- So like, I know this weird leader thing and Keith's absence and recovery has been uh- interesting but. Why don't we- instead of y'know.." Hunk turned his fingers slightly, trying to fix the situation before it broke apart. No one KNEW what was happening but didn't want it to happen, "Talk this over some milk shakes instead of glare at each other. You two have known each other since FOREVER- Shiro, Keith- c'mon." 

"Hunk is right, Paladins we do not need another fight-" Allura tried to enter the situation but Keith stood up, Lance reached out and touched his hand slightly. He wasn't paying attention. 

Keith took a breath, then spoke- choosing his words carefully. "There wasn't a lake, we never went to one because you didn't like how dark the water was. You didn't like not seeing around yourself."

Shiro's eyes narrowed slightly and he stood up as well, taking some sort of stance. 

"Are you guys SERIOUSLY going to fight? You've known each other forever!!!!!!" Pidge shouted at them but it was like talking to two giant brick walls. 

Lance looked between them and actually reached out and held Keith's hand to try and pull him back, and Keith's hand was burning hot as if he was running a fever. 

"No, we're not." Keith answered quietly, turning to walk out of the lounge but he glanced at Shiro with an eerily calm look on his face. "I think we should talk later, after dinner probably. I'm going to talk to Coran about some plans." Lance's eyes followed Keith as he left the room then he looked at Shiro. 

Hell, everyone was looking at Shiro, he was standing awkwardly there. 

"Do you.. wanna talk about it?" Lance asked, "That was a bit.." 

"Wild," said Pidge  
"Crazy," added Hunk.  
"And weird.." Allura murmured, reaching out to touch Shiro's shoulder and get him to sit back down. "It's alright, you're allowed to relax." 

Shiro finally sat back down and put his head in his hands, breathing hard. Was he having a panic attack? Lance wasn't quite sure but Allura was comforting him quietly. 

"I.. I just don't know where that came from? I - didn't know how to respond to something about a lake. What was I supposed to say?" Shiro breathed out quietly. 

"What I want to know is why he asked you a question he knew the answer too, that's not like him.. at all." Pidge mumbled slightly, bringing their knees up to their chest. "It's weird." 

Lance shrugged a little, "Maybe he thought he didn't know then realized mid-way through that he did know? I don't..it is weird actually." 

"He's been weird ever since he came back from the mission, but he's getting better. What is that Earth phrase? One step forward, two steps backwards?" Allura's voice was gentle. 

"Yeah, that's the phrase but... I don't know. I'll talk to him about it, he won't just outright tell someone what he meant y'know?" 

"I know.." Shiro laughed a little and looked up, "It's fine, he said he wants to talk to me so I handle it myself. Really. No need to worry," 

Lance nodded in response and got up from is seat, “I’m going to talk to him though, just in case something happened. I dunno if anyone’s noticed but his memories come back to him in spurts and- I think the galra might’ve.. Caused him to have a few uh.. Hallucinations about us so to speak. It’s not much though, I just don’t want him to take steps backwards when he’s gotten this far.” 

 

Everyone nodded back and resumed a cheery conversation about their newest space mall find as he left the lounge. Originally he went up to the lobby to see if Keith was actually talking to Coran, but he wasn’t there. And Coran confirmed that he was there, they did discuss plans but Keith said he was feeling tired and dismissed himself. 

Which could mean trouble, honestly when Keith ‘felt tired’ it either meant two things. Either he was going to have a seizure, or he was actually going to sleep and that sleep normally lasted for hours at a time and he slept like a rock. 

Luckily none of his seizures had been nearly as bad as the first one, there wasn’t any eye bleeding.. Just the tense spasms and occasionally he would scream when he first fell into it. But that was it, and it was still worrying. 

He ran up and down the castle looking for him, hoping to whatever higher up was out there that he didn’t have a seizure and busted his head on something. It was eerily quiet as he walked to their rooms and quietly stepped into Keith’s.. Just to double check. 

Keith was laying on his bed, holding his knife in his hands and running his fingers over the metal in absolute silence. His pupils were dilated in that way again and Lance quietly sat next to him on the bed. Letting him have his thinking moment as he pulled his white hair over his shoulder and started to braid it quietly. 

“Mm.. what’re you doing?” Keith sounded seriously exhausted and Lance perked up a little, smiling at him even though Keith wasn’t looking. 

“Making your hair look nice while you’re in your thinking bubble. Don’t mind me~ just doing my duty,” he chuckled and Keith rolled over to look at him, ruining the braid but his eyes were focused again. 

He sat up and looked at Lance silently before laughing, a real laugh. His laugh was soft and gentle, and he didn’t laugh often. Lance felt his face going red as Keith kissed him sweetly. 

“You’re such a dork, why are you really here? You suck at lying so spill it.” 

Lance sighed and tried to touch his hair again, to distract his hands and not focus on what he really was there for. 

“I’m here to ask why you put Shiro on the spot like that? You looked so.. Serious about it. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love you and I support you but.. Y’know. What the hell was it about exactly?” 

Keith just shrugged slightly, hardly a reaction coming from him honestly, “I honestly.. I just felt like I needed to know something. I didn’t realize I said anything until Shiro looked like he was ready to tackle me to the floor or something. Just.. he seems different lately, I’ve known him longer than you and.. He doesn’t seem okay.” 

“Well, you and him have been through a lot with the whole.. Captured by the Galra thing. Maybe he just had a rough few days and-” Keith was shaking his head and he was starting to hug one of his knees. Shit, he was getting nervous. 

“No, he would tell me about that, he did tell me things y’know.. After I got out of the healing pod. But he suddenly stopped. I’ve told him everything and vice versa, okay?” His voice hit a level of firm that had only been hit when he piloted Black when Shiro first disappeared. “So I KNOW what’s off. When I was captured they.. Injected me with a lot of shit, some of it caused y’know- hallucinations and.. And those were different, just..” Keith clenched his fists a few times and Lance quietly pulled him forward into his chest, hugging him tight. 

“Its okay.. Take deep breaths you’re doing the talking breathy thing again, don’t hyperventilate..” 

“When I was talking to him, and looking at his movements. It was like he was the hallucination him and for a few minutes.. I thought it was. I-I just thought, oh hey! Look at that this is all just some fucking weird dream and I’ll wake up strapped to another table with another syringe in my arm and they’ll talk and talk- the machines will screech when my vitals drop-” 

This was the most Keith had ever talked about what happened to him, he was so stiff in Lance’s arms for a little while while he talked. Then he started to rock slightly, trying to focus himself. Lance carefully touched his cheek and made Keith look at him. 

“For the record, I am quite real. How could I do this if I wasn’t?” Lance kissed him then smiled down at his somewhat shocked face. 

“..’Dunno.” 

“Exactly, hallucination me would never kiss you because hallucination me hated you. Remember?” Keith nodded slightly, “And I love you, okay? Don’t forget that. This is real, what you feel is real. You’re in the Castle of Lions, you’re safe now and forever.” 

Keith hugged onto Lance tightly and they sat like that for a long time, Keith was crying but Lance didn’t say anything. He knew that it was a panic attack, and now knew that Keith wasn’t as better as he seemed. He just wanted to no why he wouldn’t say anything till now. Maybe he was afraid of being ridiculed.. Lance had no clue but after a good half hour he found himself laying down on his side and gazing at his boyfriend. 

Fortunately Keith fell asleep and Lance traced his dark circles with his thumbs, then his cheekbones that were still so prominent that it made his heart weak. Then he gently ran the pad of his thumb over the soft petal pink of Keith’s bottom lip. The other boy nudged himself forward just a little. 

God he loved Keith so much, especially when he talked. Lance wanted to help him, and even though they were a thing it was hard to get Keith to open up. It was easier at times like this, when Keith was panicked but at the same time Lance wished that Keith could just talk without the worry of being judged.He deserved that much. 

He closed his eyes and hummed a tune, mostly to himself as Keith slept.. Steadily he himself fell into a rather deep slumber.


	7. First hits and first questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fight fight fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lost my last few chapters for this story which sucks but I’m taking a new spin on it. Hope you like this dramatic ass chapter, the next one will be from Keith’s POV and will hopefully be posted tomorrow.

When Lance woke up again Keith wasn’t in his lap anymore and the chill of the castle settled into his bones uncomfortably as he sat up. He rubbed at his face impatiently and looked around himself. The lights were on their dim early morning setting and it was easy to adjust to. His hearing felt foggy which was a whole new experience and when he got off of Keith’s bed it was only then that he started to hear voices down the hallway. 

 

The door was open just a crack and Lance walked to it quietly, blinking away his grogginess the best that he could when he heard distinct voices. 

“Let him go, Shiro stop, please!” It was Pidge, she was crying and her voice was hoarse from screaming. Lance moved quickly, throwing the door open and running to her voice. His mind went into emergency mode. Hell, he wasn’t even thinking when he rounded the corner into the training arena and actually saw what was going on. 

Keith and Shiro were fighting each other, it wasn’t sparring, it was actual fighting from what he could tell. Both of their faces were bleeding and blood was stained in Keith’s hair. He couldn’t tell whose it was though. Both of them looked enraged with each other, and Shiro actually growled.

His skin covered in goosebumps at the noise, and he found himself trotting closer to them as Keith swung a left hook and Shiro caught it, twisting his arm back until Keith gritted his teeth and kicked at him. He lunged full force into Shiro’s stomach and managed to knock the man back several feet before talking. 

“You’re not him, you’re not and I know you’re not.” His voice was shaking slightly, and he spit blood onto the floor. 

Lance swallowed hard, “You guys need to stop, this is ridiculous! We’re a team, you can’t just fight like this!” 

“I’ve told them that, they won’t listen to me. I-I’ve done everything they won’t..” Pidge broke off, and when Lance looked down at her she hugged herself and looked down. She looked so.. Terrified and Lance knew the feeling. 

He didn’t know what snapped in Keith or Shiro to make them fight like this but as he started marching towards them he heard Hunk’s rapid footsteps until the man stood next to him. As he was about to speak Hunk interrupted. 

“I’m going to grab Shiro, you grab Keith. Keep the tightest hold on him as possible and if you can get him out of the arena please do it.” 

“Do you know how long they’ve been at this?” The adrenaline in Lance’s veins was pumping so hard because he knew if Keith wanted to he could take Lance down without trying hard and he was currently pissed like a territorial dog.

Hunk bit the inside of his cheek slightly, “From what I think.. Since Shiro woke Keith up to train.” 

Lance swallowed hard, he didn’t wake up when Shiro got Keith. Was it his fall that this was happening? 

 

The brief thought of Shiro planning to fight Keith went through his head but he didn’t think Shiro was like that. Maybe he was just stressed with Keith coming back and the incident last night. 

 

He moved automically when Shiro had grabbed Keith by the throat. He saw Hunk in his peripheral vision and nodded to him as he broke into full sprint and tackled Keith to the ground the best he could in Shiro’s hold. 

It was pure damn luck that Hunk knocked Shiro down seconds after him, Lance landed hard on top of Keith and pinned him down by the shoulders. Keith inhaled sharply and glared up at him, violet eyes flaring. 

“Get the hell of me, I’m not finished with him!” 

“Like hell I’m letting you get back up,” Lance put more of his weight on him as Keith’s jaw clenched and suddenly popped his hip up and locked his knees up. He was glaring so hard at him and Lance accidentally loosened his grip.

Which was a mistake because Keith shoved Lance back with strength he didn’t know the other had and was suddenly back on his feet, pivoting on his heel and going full circle around him as he set his eyes on Shiro and started to run.

Lance jumped for him this time, darting quickly and grabbing both of his arms, twisting them behind him. Years of chasing siblings and cousin taught him the best way to wrangle someone unfortunately- but Keith was used to being grabbed apparently. 

Keith went stiff in Lance’s hold, head dropping for a moment. 

“You’re done Keith, you’re done you can’t keep going like this! You’re bleeding and.. You’re shaking. Keith-” 

“No, I’m not done, you wouldn’t understand-” Lance knew this move, saw Keith slide his foot back so he could headbutt Lance from the back. Instead Lance grabbed him by the mouth and threw him back into his chest to hold him better, sliding to his knees and dragging Keith down with him. 

Keith struggled for a second, and Lance kept his hold on him. He moved his hand from his mouth and slid his forearm over his throat to keep him in a headlock. He couldn’t let Keith continue like this, he was still recovering from the mission and he had fought himself bloody. A bruise was blossoming on his cheek. 

 

He didn’t want to keep him the choke hold but it was the only thing keeping him from getting up and trying to fight Shiro again less he hurt himself on Lance’s arm. Keith’s rapid breathing was starting to finally slow down and the anger left his face. He laid placid on the ground, looking straight at the ceiling. 

Lance looked at Hunk and Shiro and saw that they were in the same predicament but Shiro was completely passed out. It looked like his nose might be broken and a line of blood dripped out of his mouth. He wasn’t nearly as bloody as Keith was but it was hard to tell if maybe Keith was bloodier because Shiro hit him with his metal arm. He looked carefully at him but only saw blood on his flesh hand. It calmed Lance down a little. 

He looked down at Keith again and realized he was looking at him, “Why would you attack Shiro like that?” 

“He.. pinned me to the wall and..” He made an upward motion with his hand, “Choked me I.. it reminded me of when I was there I lost control.” 

Lance frowned a little, “I think we need to talk about that..” Keith shook his head at him and closed his eyes, tilting his head to the side and coughing a little. 

 

“No, I can’t.” He breathed softly and looked ready to pass out again. Lance let go of him and Keith relaxed a little more. “They’d come for me.” 

“What does that mean? Keith- Keith!” He shook him slightly but he didn’t respond, he just laid there with his eyes still slightly open but Lance knew he had passed out. 

He sighed and wiped some of the blood from his nose with his sleeve and hoisted Keith into arms. Lance looked over at Hunk with a sad look on his face.

Hunk had Shiro over his shoulder but was staring at the ground as he started walking to the healing pods. 

“Allura is gonna ask questions. How do we explain this to her?” He asked, voice shaking a little. “I knew things were tense with Shiro since Keith came back but.. I didn’t think they’d fight like this.” 

“Me either,” Lance bit his lip, “I only know that Keith’s been more paranoid. He has these.. panic attacks and it causes seizures sometimes. I think the Galra did something to him that healing pods- can’t fix. But I don’t know how to help him.” 

Hunk hit the button with his hips so the doors to the lobby would open. Pidge had run up and already set up two pods. 

Lance looked down at Keith one more time and ran his fingers through his thick hair, out of his face entirely, tracing the pad of his middle finger over his temple. 

“Can we get the pod to do a full body scan on them before it starts healing? I..” 

Pidge nodded, “Yeah j-just put them in and I’ll set it up.” 

Hunk and Lance did as they were told and Lance was thankful for the machine’s autonomous nature as it replaced Shiro and Keith’s clothes with the beige suit and deposited their clothes into the ground in a pile. The door shut and Pidge aggressively pressed buttons on a panel and a green laser went over the two unconscious men.

Lance found himself sitting down on the ground and looking up at Keith, he looked angelic in the blue light of the pod. It created and iridescent sheen in his hair and save for the blood and bruising he looked soft.

Pidge hummed, “Keith has a deep scar on the back of his neck and there’s.. like bruising on his bones. Lacerations and bruises from the fight but.” She rattled on for a second, “Same for Shiro save a loose screw in his arm without the same scars but.. it’s weird. The machine won’t tell me what it is but there’s something yellow behind Keith’s eyes and, maybe it’s disks but how.” She huffed a little.

Hunk sat down next to Lance, “Relax, we’ll figure out what’s wrong with them.”

“It’s hard..”

“I know, you love him,” Hunk laughed a little, “I get how you feel, but I’m here for you. We can help them settle their differences, and help get Keith.. sorted.” 

Lance sighed a little, “He won’t talk, he said if he did they’d come for him. I guess it means the galra but.. he sounded terrified. And he’s Keith.” 

“Ah, That is.. something we’ll have to talk about. I wonder if there’s space therapists.” 

“Maybe we can get Allura to talk to him? She was captured once too.” Pidge sat down with them. “Maybe there are space therapists. We can probably find someone.” 

“Slav might be willing to listen and give advice from other universes,” Hunk added.

Lance laughed a little, “No, he’d go insane with Slav.” 

“Maybe someone from the Blade?” 

“Yeah, they seem to understand what evil shit the galra does. I’m just saying they could even see what’s wrong with his eyes too.” Hunk hugged Lance quietly, “It’ll be okay.” 

He nodded slightly, “I-I know.. it’s just hard to believe right now.


	8. The End of The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ;)

Keith remembered when he was little he never really understood his situation, he went to school everyday like his mom told him to, he came home, did his homework then begged his mom to play with him. No matter how hard she said no somehow they were always wrapped up in a blanket fort by the time dad came home.

He would smile the moment he came through the door, an oil stain on his face. Mom would hold Keith on her hip and tell him to stay there while she wiped it off and kissed the spot where oil once was. They’d all laugh and his dad would pry Keith off her hip and they’d hug and laugh.

Keith didn’t really get that his father worked those late nights, and come home with a bright smile and a dirty face because he was hiding him and Mom. Not at that age. Keith didn’t think he understood that his situation was abnormal until he was walking home from school and two older kids followed. A third grader named Eli and his friend Jordan. He only knew their names because Keith’s teacher was their aunt.

He walked faster when he heard words like slum, poor, won’t be anything and a word he didn’t know yet mutt. Keith started running when he heard one of them crack his knuckle, hanging a left into his small neighborhood. 

“Get back here, freak!” One of them yelled, probably Eli, he was always big and scary. Keith kept running until he was tackled down onto the pavement and a fist connected with his jaw.

He saw stars when he opened his eyes, the angry blue eyed glare of Jordan Jensen bearing into his soul. Eli hovered over him and Keith tried to get away, rolling over and trying to crawl to his feet. 

Eli kicked him in the stomach and he couldn’t breathe, all of the air left him and he fell back onto the ground. One of them grabbed him by the hair and that was when he heard someone yelling and horrified screaming. 

The boys started running and Keith finally felt the tears come to his face, pain always hit him after the fact and never when his adrenaline was up. Dad said it ran in the family. But now his whole body hurt and all he could do was cry and try to breathe again. The taste of blood filled his mouth and he wheezed softly.

“Are you okay?” A new voice, he didn’t want to deal with new people. He pulled himself up from the ground silently, spitting onto the concrete and grimacing at the red color.

“My Name is Takashi Shirogane! You can call me Shiro, though.Do you know those kids who were beating you up? I can tell my dad on them, he’s a cop!!” The boy’s voice was loud and it made Keith’s head hurt, he picked up his book bag and started walking. He tried not to sniffle in front of the other. 

“Hey? Are you okay?” His voice became gentle and he put a hand on his shoulder. “You can talk, I can listen!”

Keith stepped away from him and breathed shakily, turning and running full sprint back home. Past old lady Martha’s house with the cats and the Smith’s garden until he turned down a dead end street with three houses on it, surrounded by trees and backed by woods.

He didn’t look behind him to see if Shiro had followed as he darted between two trees and ran on the path that led to his back door. Keith ran till his legs hurt and when he made it to the door he couldn’t breathe well. His ribs ached as he opened the door and shut it behind him. 

Instead of marching to the dining room to do his homework he threw his bag down and started crying again, sinking to the floor and hiding his face in his knees. It wasn’t until he hiccuped that he felt his mom’s hand on his cheek, warm and comforting. She tilted his head up and smiled at him, fangs and all. 

“What happened?” She asked, purposefully speaking in a soft voice Keith only heard twice in his life, both when dad had been hurt. Now it was because Keith was hurt.

Through tears he ranted and raved about being followed home, the word mutt he didn’t know and the beating but he didn’t get the chance to talk about Shiro by the time he was sitting on the counter, his mom nodding along as she picked up bandages, an ice pack and disinfectant spray. She looked at Keith and smiled.

“Did you cry when they beat you?”

“No, it only hurt after, I don’t think they saw me cry,” He looked up at his mom, at her purple skin and silky white hair. The large furry ears perched atop her head. He touched his own hair then his head. “What is mutt?” He asked her quietly, “They called me mutt..” 

His mother’s face fell into a sad smile at his asking, and she bent down to tend to the bruises and scrapes on his tiny body. 

“You know, when I saw your father for the first time I called him small. He was the smallest creature I’ve ever met.” Her voice was still so soft as she swabbed a spot under his left rib. He pretended it didn’t hurt as he looked up at her pretty eyes. “I came to love him as he saved me, helped me. I wanted to leave so badly but before I did I looked back and I stayed. Because for a small creature he was so smart and so… your father.”

“Is mutt like small?” 

She laughed, “No baby, it’s not. It’s a mean word those boys called you-“ 

“Is it because I don’t look like you?! Dad says once I grow more, I’ll probably look like you! I’ve got your face!” Keith smiled up at her but she looked nervous, he tilted his head. “That’s not mutt either?”

“No, Mutt is.. a mixed breed, two different things to make one. It’s not a nice word.”

“Am I a mutt?” He asked, looking down, “Dad and you aren’t the same..”

Mom was silent for a minute as she put his shirt back on him and held him close. She kissed his forehead gently. 

“You’re anything you want to be,” and she left it at that. To never be discussed again in the house. 

Dad came home like normal but his smile dropped when he saw what apparently was a bruise on Keith’s face. He didn’t understand the look on his dad’s face when he and Mom spoke in quiet whispers at dinner that night. Maybe it was worry, or masked anger because when Keith asked dad just smiled happily. 

“I’m glad you came out of that tousle okay, now eat your dinner so you can grow big and strong like your mom.” 

The word mutt didn’t come up at home at all after all. Coming home became a quiet waiting game and every time Keith walked through the door his mom would sigh and laugh. But one day on his walk home that Shiro kid followed him out of nowhere.

“I told my dad on those boys! But he needs your name, okay? So that they can get punished for beating you up.” He was so loud and as he heard his teacher say, stupidly determined. Keith walked faster but was spun around and held tight by the shoulders,”I’m serious kid! They could’ve broke your ribs!”

Keith acted before he thought, shoving Shiro back and away from him. 

“Just leave me alone! I don’t want to be followed home again!”

“Well… give me your name and I will stop following you, deal?” Shiro held his hand out and Keith watched it quietly, expecting it to curl into a fist at any moment. 

“Deal, it’s Keith. Now don’t follow me anymore,” He shook his hand then turned to run again before anyone else could see him, even when he heard Shiro yell from a distance he just kept running. He didn’t want to worry Mom again. He didn’t want to worry anyone and this Shiro guy told his dad and- did Keith have an issue on his hands. 

He’d only seen issues on tv before and only with adults on the crime shoes, he shouldn’t have issues. Those are big people things! Why would he have one? He’d have to talk to Mom and dad about it. So that it could get handled. 

After making his walk into the woods he saw lots of parked cars and sirens. They were so loud and they hurt his ears a lot but he tried to ignore them, running as quickly and silently as he could to the back door and slipping inside. There were men in navy colored uniforms scanning the counter and there was yellow tape on the front door. It made no sense. He didn’t know these men, where was Mom? 

Keith froze when a cop looked at him, their eyes were locked together and they stared at one another. The cop was huge and wouldn’t look away from him, an image of a startled deer in the middle of the road appeared in his head and he acted before he thought about it. 

Like Eli had done to him he swung his fist at the officer’s face, 

“Where’s Mom?!” He yelled as his fist was caught, he tried again with his right but had that hand caught too. “Where is she?!” This time he tried to kick the cop and had more success. He felt panic rake through his body but promised himself that he would not cry in front of this stranger. It infuriated him that the man didn’t speak. Another man in the same uniform came behind him and said,

“We’re looking for her right now, you need to calm yourself. What’s your name? It’s alright, we’re here to help.”

Keith bit his lip at the other man’s words, shaking his head a little.

The officer frowned deeply, “We need to know your name so we can help, don’t be difficult.” 

“Tell me why you’re looking for her first, let’s make a deal! My name for what you’re doing here, don’t dumb it down!” He yelled, pulling his fists back from the othe cop entirely. 

The two looked at each other and the one who spoke for the other knelt down onto Keith’s level, and breathed a heavy sigh.

“Do you want the truth, kid?” He asked, Keith nodded. He never liked secrets that much anyways. 

“Your mother shouldn’t have been on this planet, we think she might’ve gone back to her home world. Leaving you behind, we want to track her and ask her questions. So lose this act and tell us where she is.”

Keith’s mind felt like electric cotton for a second at the man’s words, her home was here. She- homeworld? 

“It’s obvious she’s not your real mom, whatever alien magic she put into your-“ Keith turned and started running, away from his house with only the clothes on his back. It was instinct, that made him do that but he didn’t find out until later. Dread filled his stomach but he didn’t really know why it did as he ran through the woods. He didn’t know where to go, which direction he went was still a mystery.

It was something ingrained in him that taught him to run, his father's soft smile while he spoke worried words to his mom about what to do if they ‘got caught’ swearing secrecy to Keith that he’d never tell his teachers about his family. Just himself and dad. That was all.

Somehow it clicked in his five year old brain that his mom had to flee and that dad had run away too, maybe they forgot Keith. Dad would come home, he always did come home. Keith ran until he came to an overpass above a road. He ran on the sidewalk before stopping to catch his breath. The sun was starting to set and he was sure he got far enough. He could catch up with dad from here.. he swore it. Even when he threw up and held onto his knees to stop from shaking. 

All of it suddenly came together and when he looked up blue light flooded his vision and he was back on the galra ship, strapped to a table with a light flashing in his eyes. 

“Its working,” one of the aliens said in a low gruff, “I can’t believe it. Its working.” 

He closed his eyes again, this couldn't be real. None of it was happening, it couldn’t be. There was another flashing blue light and suddenly he was cold, he couldn’t open his eyes again. No one could make him. 

The cold air left in a fwoosh and he felt himself stumbling forward out of something and he tried to open his eyes. Hell, he felt himself open his eyes but he couldn’t see anything. Warm hands caught him by the shoulders and he heard a startled laugh, 

“Oh my god, Keith, you’re okay! You scared the shit out of everyone.” It was Lance, but he couldn’t see him at all. He tried to look around but it was all just velvety darkness. 

“Keith- hey buddy you’re okay. Wanna get some food, lay down and get actual sleep and not medicated sleep?” 

Lance’s warm hand was back on his cheek and he swallowed down a lump in his throat as he leaned into his soft callouses. He smelt like pine and something else that Keith had never noticed before. 

“Hey- Keith c’mon don’t be all weird and gushy.” Lance pulled away from him but still held him steady. “Tell me what’s up?”

“I..” Keith’s throat was so sore, he wanted to throw up, “I can’t see anything, I-” he swallowed again, he could feel himself shaking but couldn’t stop it. “Something’s wrong with me.” 

Lance swallowed and Keith shivered at the noise, then he laughed, “C’mon, you’re joking. Lets go get food and you’ll feel better. C’mon-” He started walking and Keith tried to follow the sounds of his shoes hitting the floor, he felt like he was floating. Like he didn’t really exist at all, he couldn’t hear Lance’s footsteps anymore and took to walking with his arms in front of him until he met the wall and slowly started walking to where he thought the exit was.

Footsteps raced towards him, multiple people. He felt their warmth when they came in and Lance breathed a giant breath. 

“Keith..?” 

“I told you,I can’t see anything. I wasn’t joking,” he growled a little, and it sounded more animalistic than he wanted it too but here he was, frozen in place. 

“Keith?” Why did his voice sound like it was getting further away. He didn’t understand, why couldn’t he… 

“Lance!” He yelled back into the darkness, “Lance this isn’t funny anymore! Can you- damn can you just come help me!!” He yelled louder as he slid onto the floor, touching the cool tile like material and grimacing as it slowly turned to a liquid. A sharp pain raked through his body and he shouted. 

“LANCE!”

**Author's Note:**

> fucking yeah so this is the begining of this fic I promise its going to get both angstier but sweeter. I'm glad to have finally written this down. I hope you enjoy it!!!! Hit up the comments for any suggestions on where this should go if you want.


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